Australia’s gun buyback is the wrong response to Bondi Beach massacre |
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for a national “gun buyback” program in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre. But additional restrictions on gun ownership aren’t the solution. Instead, they’ll distract from larger, more difficult problems to solve.
On December 19, Albanese announced that the Australian government will establish a “national gun buyback scheme.” The prime minister told reporters that he “expects hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed.”
Albanese’s proposal came less than a week after the Bondi Beach massacre, in which two gunmen murdered 15 Jews and wounded at least 40 more at a Hanukkah celebration. Authorities say that Naveed Akram and his father Sajid Akram deliberately targeted Australia’s Jewish community. Australian officials have said that the attack was inspired by ISIS, noting “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”